In modern competitive speed boats, the driver is seated in a bucket seat and is strapped into place, with the seat being situated in an undeformable zone of the boat structure.
Thus, conventional life-buoy and life-vest systems are not usable, since the driver does not have time to release himself from the seat, or may be incapable of doing so because of unconsciousness.
Numerous equipments are known for providing protection for the pilots of aircraft in the event of incidents at high altitude, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,189,027 and 4,651,728. These equipments are not suitable for providing protection against drowning.
Finally, equipments are known for protecting persons required to go into toxic atmospheres (see for example British Pat. No. 2,045,090). Hereagain the equipments are not suitable for immersion of the wearer in water.
One of the objects of the invention is to provide a device which is deployed completely automatically and which serves to protect the driver against drowning in the event of total or partial immersion, and to provide self-contained survival breathing while waiting to be rescued.